Muskö naval base

Muskö naval base
Sweden
Swedish frigate (HMS Sundsvall) entering one of the openings to the naval base.
Type	Underground naval base.
Built	1950-1969
Construction materials	Concrete, stone, steel
In use	1955–present
Controlled by	Sweden
Battles/wars	None

The Swedish destroyer HMS Småland in one of the underground docks in Muskö naval base (1960).

Muskö naval base is a Swedish underground naval facility on the island of Muskö just south of Stockholm in Haninge Municipality (Haninge Komun).

The construction of the base started in 1950 and was completed 19 years later in 1969. During the construction about 1.5 million tons of rock was removed. It has 3 docks, originally designed for destroyers and submarines. The underground base itself has an area of several km²^{[citation needed]} and is connected by 20 km (12 mi) of underground roads. A 3 km (1.9 mi) long, dangerously narrow road tunnel running some 70 metres (230 ft) under the sea level connects the mainland and Muskö island.^[1]

During the Cold war the underground facility was kept highly secret and not much information about it was known to the public.^[2] In 2004 the Swedish government decided that the navy should be concentrated to one base only, the Karlskrona naval base, and much of the Muskö base was closed. Today some parts of the facility is still used by the military. The underground shipyards are operated by Kockums AB^[3] and Muskövarvet AB.

One of the Swedish submarine incidents in October, 1982, took place at Muskö naval base.^[4][5]

A survey carried out in 2000, concluded that sedimentation in the tunnels leading to docks contained PCBs, organotin compounds and heavy metals, mainly mercury and copper.^[6]

References

1. ^ Salo, Ilkka; Svenson, Ola (September 2003) (PDF), Safety Management: A Frame of Reference for Studies of Nuclear Power Safety Management and Case Studies from Non-Nuclear Contexts, Nordic nuclear safety research (NKS), NKS-88, Roskilde, Denmark: NKS Secretariat, pp. 9–13, ISBN 87-7893-146-0, http://www.nks.org/download/pdf/NKS-Pub/NKS-88.pdf, retrieved 2010-11-27 
2. ^ Skoglund, Helene; Nynäshamns Posten (January 2010). "Musköbasen 40 år [Muskö Naval Base 40 years]" (in Swedish) (PDF). Stockholm: Kungliga Motorbåt Klubben. pp. 4–7. http://www.kmk.a.se/ImageUpload/kmkNytt0110.pdf. Retrieved 2010-11-09. 
3. ^ Kockums AB. "Kockums shipyard facilities at Muskö". http://www.kockums.se/en/products-services/marine-services/musko-facilities/. Retrieved 2010-11-09. 
4. ^ Ola Tunander (24 September 2004). The secret war against Sweden: US and British submarine deception in the 1980s. Psychology Press. p. x. ISBN 9780714653228. http://books.google.com/books?id=cN-ETroO0zEC&pg=PA35. Retrieved 8 November 2010. 
5. ^ Keith Hartley; Todd Sandler (1990). The Economics of defence spending: an international survey. Routledge. p. 154. ISBN 9780415001618. http://books.google.com/books?id=PtINAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA154. Retrieved 9 November 2010. 
6. ^ Ulf Qvarfort; Annie Waleij, Henrik Mikko (March 2002). "[Survey of Muskö Naval Base foretunnel sediments]" (in Swedish) (PDF). Sedimentundersökning i förtunnlarna vid Musköbasen. Umeå, Sweden: Totalförsvarets Forskningsinstitut. p. 3. ISSN 1650-1942. FOI-R--0497--SE. http://www2.foi.se/rapp/foir0497.pdf. Retrieved 2010-11-10. 

Coordinates: 58°58′47″N 18°03′50″E / 58.97967°N 18.063827°E / 58.97967; 18.063827